"The Germans are protesting again?"

Looking at the folds in his hand, Li Weiguo was a little helpless.

It was both surprising and reasonable.

After all, the Chinese Empire had cheated the Germans with a lot of money before, and as a buyer, it was understandable to find that the price of the goods just purchased had been reduced again, and it was understandable to protest.

"Yes, Your Majesty, Bismarck personally called and strongly protested, saying that the Reich should not help the French and Tsarist Empires to build dreadnought battleships, which would pose a huge strategic threat to Germany and China, and I hope we will consider this matter carefully." Zhang Peilun replied.

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, France and Tsarist Russia have not agreed to join the Anglo-American-Japanese Entente for the time being, but have only unilaterally signed a military agreement with the British Empire, which is obviously aimed at the German Empire in Europe, which is where the core interests of Russia and France lie.

Therefore, the German Empire was the most strategically threatened, and if war broke out, Tsarist Russia and France would attack not the Chinese Empire first, but the German Empire.

Strategically speaking, Li Weiguo deliberately used the German Empire to stir up the situation in Europe.

The alliance between the Chinese Empire and the German Empire was ostensibly in response to the threat to the Chinese Empire from Britain, the United States and Japan, but in fact the Chinese Empire itself was not afraid of the Triple Alliance of Britain, the United States and Japan.

The German Empire was pulled in just to upset the balance of power in Europe, to make the Europeans infighting, and to consume the overall strength of the entire Western world.

Only in this way can the Chinese empire finally remove the obstacles of the Western world and accelerate its global hegemony.

In the final analysis, the German Empire was just an ally used by the Chinese Empire to make money and sell out!

"Then give them the information on the battleships ordered by France and Russia!"

Li Weiguo put down the twists and turns in his hand and quickly made a decision.

This is also a countermeasure that he has thought of a long time ago.

After all, the battleships built by the Chinese Empire for the French Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire were inferior in comprehensive performance to those built for the German Empire. And the sharing of data on the battleships of France and Russia with the German Empire was actually the German Empire taking advantage of it, obtaining a 100% true enemy intelligence for free.

Sure enough, when Zhang Peilun went back and informed Bismarck of Li Weiguo's decision, Bismarck immediately stopped protesting, but praised the Sino-German alliance for friendship and cooperation.

A diplomatic storm passed.

Similar to this kind of confrontation at the diplomatic level, the Chinese Empire has to deal with dozens of them every day, and ordinary Zhang Peilun and Li Fan Yuan deal with it. Unless there is a major diplomatic incident, he will come to Li Weiguo for instructions.

Military officials come to ask for instructions more often than administrative officials.

No, as soon as Zhang Peilun left, the two giants of the military, Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun, came together and reported something to Li Weiguo.

As for Zhuang Jiuxia, the commander of the air force of the Chinese Empire, he was excluded by the navy and army, which was actually discrimination against the air force by the navy and army.

After all, the army speaks with the size of a fist, and at present, the Imperial Air Force of China does not have any tasks, has not participated in any wars, and no one knows how strong it is. Therefore, it is reasonable not to be treated by the two major systems of the navy and the army.

This time, the two giants of the navy and army came together, and there was no air force commander Zhuang Jiuxia, so he obviously didn't plan to take him to play together.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it is too wasteful of resources to set up an air force alone, so why don't you put the air force under the command of the army?"

Zhang Xiaoliu was closest to Li Weiguo, and after visiting the shrine, he made a request straight to the point.

Lin Jiyun suddenly stopped doing it, and objected: "Why should it be assigned to your army?" Your Majesty, please assign the Air Force to our Navy! ”

Li Weiguo was stunned, thinking that these two goods were here to ask for equipment and military salaries, but they turned out to be here to carve up the air force.

What kind of wind is this Nima pumping?

"Okay, why do you want to annex the Air Force?"

Li Weiguo's face suddenly darkened, and he said in his heart: Your uncle, if you don't give me a reasonable reason, you two will be kicked to death!

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun glanced at each other, so they reported their reasons.

It turned out that not long ago, during a routine annual military exercise of the Shence Army of the Chinese Empire on the Mongolian steppe, the Red Army units were repeatedly attacked by the Blue Army and suffered heavy losses. Later, the Red Army troops were forced to be in a hurry, and a certain reconnaissance battalion rented a hot air balloon, and the scouts overlooked the entire exercise area from the air, and not only discovered the sneak attack troops of the Blue Army and successfully ambushed and eliminated them, but also knew the military deployment and military dynamics of the entire Blue Army units well, and fought a turnaround battle in one fell swoop.

Afterwards, at the summary meeting of the exercise, the commander of the Red Army unit introduced the great military use and role of the hot air balloon, which attracted great attention from the Army Committee.

After that, Zhang Xiaoliu began to equip the army units with hot air balloons or sounding balloons, but he soon found that hot air balloons and sounding balloons were not as cool as airships, with many people, long ranges, long stay in the air, flying high, and not easy to be shot down, so he borrowed an airship from Air Force Commander Zhuang Jiuxia, and this borrowing was addicted to it, and he did not plan to return it, and even wanted to annex the Air Force and make the Air Force a reconnaissance unit attached to the army units.

At another meeting of the military department, Zhuang Jiuxia quarreled with Zhang Xiaoliu and demanded the return of the airship unit of the Air Force, but Zhang Xiaoliu did not pay it back, but shamelessly prepared to use the military committee to "borrow" more airships from Zhuang Jiuxia.

Zhuang Jiuxia suddenly became angry, Lin Jiyun persuaded him, and as a result, he soon discovered the wonderful use of airships, in addition to reconnoitring the enemy situation at sea, he could also observe the impact point of the salvo of the guns of various ships from a high altitude to help the naval guns shoot. With the help of airships at high altitudes, the projectile impact point, coupled with advanced optical shooting sights, greatly improves the accuracy of artillery salvos.

Lin Jiyun was also red-eyed, and this persuader soon became Zhang Xiaoliu's accomplice, wanting to carve up the airship unit of the Air Force.

However, no matter how strong Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun are, it is impossible to really carve up the air force, after all, the air force is a new branch of the army hand-picked by Li Weiguo's imperial pen, and the rank and rank are on par with the army and navy, strictly speaking, Zhuang Jiuxia's status is the same as Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun.

If you want to say that the only advantage may be that Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun are old, especially Zhang Xiaoliu, who is from the Son of Heaven's family, who dares not to give face.

Zhuang Jiuxia also won the trust of Li Weiguo, he was a very popular minister, and not everyone could pinch it, he did not agree with the military committee to "lend" the airship to the navy and army, and no one in the military committee could take him.

So Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun came to meet Li Weiguo together, intending to persuade Li Weiguo to directly issue an order to assign the air force to the army or navy.

In fact, this is also a battle between the military system, and the army and navy did not deal with each other originally, and there has been a constant struggle between the heavens from ancient times to this day.

However, when the Chinese Empire secretly established an air force alongside the army and navy, the struggle between the army and navy seemed to ease, and the spearhead was unanimously aimed at the air force.

This time, the navy and the land want to divide up the air force, and the deep-seated explanation is that the power struggle has reached a climax.

Li Weiguo was so shrewd that he could see through the root cause of the problem at a glance.

After the birth of the air force in history, it was also subordinate to the army at the beginning, that is, the army aviation of various countries during the First World War. By the time of World War II, aircraft carriers were majestic, so there were more naval aviation. It was not until the Cold War that the Air Force truly became an independent branch of the armed forces, and in the 21st century, it has become the most powerful branch of the armed forces, surpassing the naval and land forces.

Looking at the posture of Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun now, they want to establish the army aviation and naval aviation of the Chinese Empire in advance!

The idea is good, but the way is wrong, this wind can't last!

Li Weiguo's face suddenly sank, and he said, "General Zhang, General Lin, you two are quite capable!" You dare to annex even the air force I founded? Catch Ming'er and hand over my Imperial Forest Army and the Queen's Fire Phoenix Army to you to manage! ”

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun were both stunned, glanced at each other, and immediately fell to their knees on the ground, kowtowing one after another.

"Your Majesty forgive your sins! Don't dare! ”

"Your Majesty forgive your sins! Panic! ”

Li Weiguo snorted coldly and said: "Today is not a day to worship, nor is it a day to worship ancestors, so there is no need to kneel and worship!" ”

"The minister is guilty, please be gracious!"

"The minister has no intention of offending Your Majesty, please forgive Your Majesty!"

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun were sweating profusely, knowing that they had angered the emperor's rebels, how could they dare to get up? Honestly kneel and admit your mistakes!

"Then you should kneel and reflect on yourself!"

Li Weiguo didn't even look at the two of them, and began to review the folds, one after another.

Time went by like this, and an hour passed in the blink of an eye.

Since the founding of the Chinese Empire, Li Weiguo has gradually abolished the kneeling ceremony. In peacetime, civil officials bow 90 degrees, and military attaches perform a one-knee knightly salute; During the march and battle, the etiquette of civilian officials remained unchanged, and military attachés performed a one-handed military salute. In addition, there will be kneeling ceremonies at the time of the monthly pilgrimage ceremony, festival day or sacrificial ceremony, which is limited to officials and civilians.

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun hadn't knelt like this for many years, and they were frightened in their hearts, so they couldn't guess the emperor's thoughts, so they sweated profusely, and soon their legs were numb, and their knees were in severe pain.

"It's all you, pampered tsundere! Now Lao Tzu was killed by you! Lin Jiyun glared at Zhang Xiaoliu with his eyes, revealing his mouth, but did not make a sound.

"Your uncle, it was you who instigated Lao Tzu to come to see Your Majesty, and now that something has happened, you blame Lao Tzu!" Zhang Xiaoliu suddenly glared back angrily.

The two stared at each other like this, blaming each other.

Li Weiguo glanced at it occasionally, and when he saw the expressions of the two, he was very happy.

Ya, it's time to kill your majesty, or your tail will go up to the sky!

Li Weiguo deliberately frustrated the spirit of the two of them, otherwise other civil and military officials would say that the emperor would have a bowl of water in the future.

"You two are addicted to your knees, aren't you?"

"The ministers are guilty!"

"Guilty? One of you is the Minister of War and the other is the Minister of the Navy, what can you do? ”

Li Weiguo said angrily and continued to review the folds.

Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun glanced at each other and said with bitter faces.

"The minister is guilty, the minister should not covet the airship of the air force!"

"Ministers are guilty of the same crime! Please be gracious, Your Majesty! ”

Li Weiguo saw that the two of them sincerely repented, so he said: "If you know that you are wrong, get out of here, I will summon the Dutch envoy in a while, and I don't have time to deal with you!" ”

Zhang Xiaoliu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, why don't you scold us again!" It's not good for the dragon body to hold your breath in your stomach! Why don't you beat me up! ”

Lin Jiyun was dumbfounded, and secretly scolded Zhang Xiaoliu, you are really a slut! And those who are looking for scolding and being beaten?

At this time, Li Weiguo suddenly picked up a book on the table and smashed it towards Zhang Xiaoliu, and scolded at the same time: "Little Liuzi, you get out of here!" I don't want to see you again in three days! ”

"Yes, yes, the minion is going to get out!" Zhang Xiaoliu was so happy that he was smashed by the book, and suddenly rolled out of the hall.

Lin Jiyun was stunned for a moment.

"Where are you holding a corpse? I don't care about you! I don't want to see you for three days! ”

Li Weiguo saw that Lin Jiyun was still in a daze, and was about to smash people with books again, but Lin Jiyun saw that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly retired.

Outside the main hall, Lin Jiyun scolded Zhang Xiaoliu for having nothing to do, and he had to be scolded and beaten as well.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Xiaoliu smiled and said: "I said Xiaoyunzi, you don't understand this!" Your Majesty beats you, that is close to you, and Your Majesty scolds you, which is love for you. When we first entered, His Majesty called me General Zhang, and that was angry. When we left, His Majesty called me Little Liuzi, that is, the anger was gone, understand? ”

"I understand your size! Also, I warn you Xiao Liuzi, call me Xiao Yunzi less in the future! Lin Jiyun glared.

"Ok, Xiao Yunzi, I won't call you Xiao Yunzi anymore!" Zhang Xiaoliu suddenly said with an underwhelming expression.

……

The two of them came happily and returned disappointed, but failed to divide Zhuang Jiuxia's air force, but were scolded, and the news quickly spread among the civil and military officials, and they immediately burst into laughter, which shows that the two of them offend people on weekdays!

When Zhuang Jiuxia learned about it, he immediately laughed: "You deserve it!" Dare to fight Lao Tzu's idea of the Air Force, you two deserve to be scolded! Your Majesty is truly wise! ”

A storm passed, but a month later, Li Weiguo convened a military meeting in front of the emperor, and Zhang Xiaoliu and Lin Jiyun once again mentioned that the army and navy should be equipped with balloons or airships for reconnaissance and shooting.

This time, Li Weiguo did not get angry, but approved the request of the two of them, and the Shence Army of the Chinese Empire established the Naval Aviation Corps and the Army Aviation Corps, which were under the jurisdiction of the Navy and the Army respectively.

However, due to the principle of strategic secrecy, the scale of HNA and LU is not large. The preliminary training work was entrusted to the Air Force.

The focus of the military conference was not on the formation of naval aviation and army aviation, but on the preparation of a move on the Dutch East Indies.

Previously, the Chinese Empire had tactfully expressed its intention to purchase the Dutch East Indies to the Dutch authorities through various channels, but they were all refused.

The Dutch East Indies were of great strategic importance to the Chinese Empire, especially the conclusion of a military alliance between Britain and Russia, and it is believed that within a few years, the five-nation entente bloc of Britain, France, the United States, Russia, and Japan will be established.

This is a general trend in the international landscape that cannot be reversed.

Although Li Weiguo is not afraid of the five-nation entente bloc, he must also be fully prepared.

In the event of a war between the Entente and the Allied bloc, the attitude of the Netherlands would inevitably be to join the Entente, and then the Dutch East Indies would likely become a bridgehead for the British Imperial Navy to enter the Asia-Pacific region.

At the same time, as the industrial scale of the Chinese empire continued to grow, its dependence on oil became more and more serious. Crude oil production from Lanfang State, Papua Islands and Australia is in short supply, and although there are many large oil reserves in China, it is a pity that the oil fields are too deep to be buried, and the world's most advanced drilling equipment cannot produce oil.

Therefore, Li Weiguo had to consider that the Chinese Empire was an oil supply line.

At present, the world's two major oil bases, one is the Persian Gulf, and the other is the Dutch East Indies.

Most of the Persian Gulf coast is a colony of the British Empire, and the British Royal Navy has amassed a large number of troops in the region, once the war breaks out, the concessions of the Chinese Empire in the region will be attacked, and the British army will cut off the oil supply of the Chinese Empire as soon as possible.

As a result, the Dutch East Indies became the oil supply base of the Chinese Empire. But in wartime, whether the Dutch was neutral or fell to the British Empire, the export of oil would be banned.

Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of oil supply, Li Weiguo had to take action against the Dutch East Indies.

After the complete sweep of the Dutch East Indies, the entire Asia-Pacific region, with the exception of Japan, would be brought under the rule of the Chinese Empire.

The Malay Peninsula, the Dutch East Indies, the Papua Islands, Australia, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Ezo Islands will be connected to form a strategic front-line defense circle with a radius of 10,000 miles, and the Pacific Ocean will become the inner lake of the Chinese Empire, which is of great significance to the maritime defense and security of the Chinese Empire. (To be continued.) )